Search results for

Will the administration's health law survive the Supreme Court? A majority of bettors think not. Over at Intrade, a "prediction market" for current events, the betting gave chances of about 58 percent that the court will disallow the mandate.

Trimming the rise in obesity in the U.S. by just 1 percent over the next two decades would reduce health care costs by by $85 billion. The fight isn't likely to be cheap. But new researchers shows that even a small dent in obesity rates could pay off.

Under some state laws, a patient's positive test for alcohol can mean that insurers won't pay hospitals and doctors for care after an accident. To sidestep the potential problem, hospitals often don't screen patients for alcohol use.

Nonprofit hospitals pay no federal, state, or local taxes. In return, they are expected to offer a community benefit, including free and discounted care for low-income patients. But a study by the Congressional Budget Office found that, on average, not-for-profits are providing only slightly more uncompensated care than for-profit hospitals.

Babies are born too soon at a higher rate in the United States than in 125 other countries. The first worldwide rankings of preterm births show the problem isn't limited to the developing world.

With all the attention focused on the Supreme Court hearings on the fate of the Affordable Care Act, it might seem that the future of all reforms to the health care system is in the balance. But some in the insurance industry say many changes are already in motion.

In rural Mississippi, the number of doctors per person is among the lowest in the country. Now, a new scholarship program is trying to attract medical students to begin their practice there. The success — or failure — of the program depends largely on the recruiter's ability to pick the right students.

The state is one of just a few that is expanding Medicaid ahead of a major expansion called for in 2014 by the federal health law. Though the state estimates that 50,000 people meet the income bar, Colorado will only be able to offer coverage to 10,000 people.

If the Supreme Court strikes down the health overhaul law, what happens to the people who have benefited already? Here's a roundup of some answers to questions raised by the historic arguments.

Only 17 states and the District of Columbia have proposed running their own insurance markets. Experts had expected mostly small states to seek federal help, but some of the nation's largest have said they will not run an exchange on their own.

A growing number of teenage girls are incarcerated each year. Many have injuries consistent with sexual assault, and up to a third are or have been pregnant. But the care provided in detention is often inadequate for girls because the assessment of their needs misses the mark.

People hoping to save a few dollars by choosing insurance with low upfront costs may be losing out. Hospitals and other health care providers sometimes fail to apply discounts when individuals, rather than insurers, are paying the bills.

Without rules that spell out which health plan takes the lead, a young person who lives out of state and is covered by his parents' plan and a college health plan might run into trouble trying to get in-network care when far from hometown.

Hospice policies that reject patients on the grounds that no one's at home to care for them, while increasingly rare, do still exist around the country. But for many families, that's just not an option.

Verifying that a patient has paid for coverage under the Affordable Care Act can take hours. But if doctors' offices don't check, they can get stuck with the bill.

Drugmakers have been criticized for cost-sharing assistance programs that encourage patients to use brand-name drugs instead of cheaper, generic alternatives. The federal government has frowned on the help, but there are expensive medicines for cancer and rheumatoid arthritis that don't have generic equivalents.

Health plans of all kinds typically cover rehabilitative services, such as physical therapy to help people after an accident or illness. But before the Affordable Care Act passed, coverage of similar services to help people learn or maintain functional skills, rather than regain them, was often excluded.

If a couple divorces, each person's eligibility for insurance-related tax credits will generally be based on his or her own annual income. The former spouse's income won't be counted, even if the couple filed taxes jointly the previous year.

A Florida law prohibits doctors from discussing gun ownership with patients. After some doctors fought the law in court, a federal judge blocked its enforcement. Now the state has appealed the injunction, and advocates for both sides are weighing in.

The Affordable Care Act included a Medicaid pay hike for primary care doctors. It's an incentive for them to see the larger number of patients who will be covered by an expansion of Medicaid under the law. Some other specialists who say they also provide primary care won't be eligible for the increase.

People with severe injuries tend to fare much better at specialized trauma centers than in typical emergency rooms. But a study suggests less equipped hospitals are hanging on to patients who can pay.

Despite a Justice Department decision giving same-sex married couples equal recognition in federal courthouses, prisons and other programs, inconsistency in the treatment of same-sex married couples under the health law remains. States still make their own decisions.

As the long, slow demise of company-sponsored retiree health insurance continues, some firms are contracting with Medicare exchanges to try to ease the transition for their former employees.

When a relative signs up for Medicare, it is often perplexing — and unnerving — for the rest of the family who may have grown used to cushy employer-sponsored coverage.

Under the federal health law and 2006 regulations, insurers can't deny medical coverage for an individual's injuries because they resulted from a medical condition such as depression, even if it wasn't diagnosed before the injury.